The official DU guide to the far-left in Britain (2015 edition)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

It's been two years and I recently saw my 2013 edition quoted on DU, so I thought I'd better write up an update.

This is an introductory guide to what passes for left-wing parties in Britain. I have focused on left-wing parties which organise in Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland).

Never again will you confuse the CPGB with the CPGB-ML or even the CPGB-PCC.
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Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL) a tiny group formed from various Trotskyist sects in the 1970s, the AWL was known for its extremely anti-Soviet stance to the extent of backing the US in the Cold War as “the lesser of two evils.” In 2003 it opposed the Iraq War but surprised the rest of the left by supporting the US-occupation and the NATO occupation of Afghanistan. The AWL is also known for implementing cultish activities in order to groom new recruits and the use of bullying to control its membership.

Coalition of Resistance – an anti-austerity campaign group which called for a broad anti-austerity alliance to defeat the Tory-Lib Dem coalition in 2011. Founded by Counterfire and the CPB, the CoR eventually merged into the larger TUC-led People's Assembly movement.

Communist League – a UK spin-off from a similarly-named US organisation, with its UK operations subordinate to its US sister.. They take a conventional Trotskyist position although unusually for Trotskyists they are very pro-Cuba.

Communist Party of Britain (CPB) Britain's current “official” communist party. It broke away from the “old” CPGB in 1988 as the latter abandoned Marxism for Third Way politics. The CPB was founded by the editors and supporters of the Morning Star newspaper.

Communist Party of Britain-Marxist-Leninist (CPB-ML) A small Maoist group which split from the CPGB in the 1960s, backing China in the Sino-Soviet split.

Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) Britain's former “official” communist party. Founded in 1920, counted 300,000 members in 1945 and a handful of MPs until 1951. It died a slow death in the 1980s before being wound up in 1991. The party's theoretical journal Marxism Today abandoned Marxism in favour of “New Times” theory in the late 1970s, placing identity politics above economic questions. In the late 1980s the Party's 'Eurocommunist' leaders denounced Marxism and endorsed the Liberal/SDP coalition in 1987. The leading lights of the Eurocommunist faction went on to found Blairite and neoliberal think tanks.

Communist Party of Great Britain Provisional Central Committee (CPGB-PCC) A small group of Trotskyist ex-Stalinists who publish a gossip rag called “Weekly Worker”. Its raison d'etre is to slag off the rest of the left despite having few members itself (low double-digits), the extent of which is the reason why the rest of the left think the CPGB-PCC are trolls.

Communist Party of Great Britain-Marxist-Leninist (CPGB-ML) A breakaway group from the Socialist Labour Party. Scargill threw this lot out for being too far-left. It's a small group who worship Stalin and think North Korea is a wonderful implementation of socialism. They spend most of their time attacking the CPB and the Morning Star as “revisionist social democrats.” The CPGB-ML publishes a monthly journal called Proletarian.

Counterfire – a small campaign group founded by John Rees and Lindsey German after they and their supporters had been expelled by the SWP in 2010. It is Trotskyist and calls for a broad anti-austerity movement.

Independent Socialist Network (ISN) a very small group numbering a few dozen. They are a Trotskyist group affiliated to TUSC and mostly spend their time arguing for a no-border controls policy.

International Socialists Network (ISN) a group of several hundred which broke away from the SWP in 2013 over the mishandling of a rape allegation and have accused the SWP CC of gerrymandering of internal elections and authoritarianism.

Left Unity – Founded by members of various Trotskyist groups in 2013 after Ken Loach called for “a new party of the left” (you mean this has never been tried before?). The group espouses a mixture of social liberalism, social democracy and Trotskyist politics. It has also become recently well-known as a bastion of trans-exclusionary feminism. Most of its members are also members of SR, Workers Power, both ISNs, former-SWPies and other Trotskyist parties. It has had little effect on the left due to the fractured nature of its membership as each party vies for control. Due to the overlap with TUSC several LU candidates are also standing on the TUSC platform in the 2015 General and local elections.

New Communist Party (NCP) The Surrey branch of the CPGB left en masse in 1977 due to their dislike of the dominant Eurocommunist faction in the CPGB. They number a small group. Their occasional newspaper is The New Worker.

The People's Assembly Against Austerity – a broad anti-austerity coalition formed by the TUC and several trade unions including NUJ, NUT, CWU, PCS and Unite, parts of the Labour left, as well as the CPB and Counterfire. It is a successor organisation to both The People's Charter and the Coalition of Resistance. The People's Assembly is opposed by SPEW and SWP, due to their calls for a 'new workers' party of the left' being rebuffed by the trade unions. Both parties still however attend PA rallies and events to recruit.

The People's Charter – a pressure group set-up by the CPB calling for a set of key broad-left demands and was adopted as official TUC policy.

Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) Ex-Trotskyists who left International Socialists in the 1970s. They remained Trotskyist until the Berlin Wall came down before turning into ultra-leftists who think revolution will come when people stop joining trade unions (which they consider evil). They publish a bimonthly paper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!

Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain-Marxist-Leninist (RCPB-ML) A small group of ex-Maoists who idolise Enver Hoxha and backed Albania in the Sino-Albanian split. They publish a weekly paper called Workers' Weekly.

Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century – A Trotskyist group comprised of ex-SWP members who broke away in early 2014 to form a group in the international socialist tradition without the control freakery and alleged misogyny of the SWP machinery.

Scottish Socialist Party – a Scottish breakaway from Militant Labour. They espouse Trotskyist politics and Scottish nationalism. they had a respectable number of SSPs until destroyed by the Solidarity Scotland split.

Socialist Appeal – A small Trotskyist group which split away from the former Militant Labour in the 1990s. They maintain a policy of entryism into the Labour Party and harbour aspirations “delusions?” that the unions can win the Labour Party over to Trotskyism.

Socialist Labour Party (SLP) After New Labour got rid off Clause IV from the Labour Party's constitution, Scargill and other trade unionists re-founded a new workers party. The SLP initially received some respectable showings in by-elections but failed to grow beyond ex-NUM circles. Scargill's personality is the driving force for the party.

Socialist Party of England and Wales (SPEW) Britain's largest Trotskyist party. Formerly known as Militant Labour. Ted Grant is their chief theoretician. They publish a weekly paper called The Socialist. They harbour dreams “delusions?” that all the trade unions will disaffiliate from Labour and join with them in a new workers party. They are the main force behind TUSC. The Socialist Party is seen by the rest of the left as less annoying than the SWP.

Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) Formed in 1904 and still surviving as a small group. It follows an anti-Leninist form of Marxism. It stands in elections as Socialist Party (which denies SPEW the ability to stand under its own name) where it gathers next to zero votes. It believes that revolution will happen through a SPGB government at Westminster (I'm not joking) which is why its detractors refer to SPGB as practising “Impossiblism”. It publishes a magazine called Socialist Standard. It stood candidates in the 2014 European Elections on a platform which called for the abolition of all money.

Socialist Resistance – Formed in the early 2000s but consider themselves inheritors of the Fourth International, a Trotskyist group with a particular emphasis for eco-socialism and radical trans-exclusionary feminism. SR affiliated to TUSC and most recently called on its members to join Left Unity. SR has around 200 members. It has also affiliated to the People's Assembly but it disagrees with the PA's pro-transgender rights line.

Socialist Workers Party (SWP) Britain's formerly-largest Trotskyist party. Formerly known as International Socialists and follows Tony Cliff as its chief thinker. It publishes a weekly paper 'Socialist Worker' which ranges from okish to appalling in terms of quality. The SWP pissed off the rest of the left for leaving the Socialist Alliance and forming RESPECT with George Galloway, of whom they later fell out with. They are in the dog-house with the rest of the left due to their suspect treatment of female comrades and have suffered a great number of damaging splits which has seen them overtaken by SPEW as the largest Trotskyist party. The SWP affiliated to the SPEW-led TUSC coalition in 2014 as a way to give some direction and influence onto the wider far-left.

Solidarity – Tommy Sheridan fell out with the rest of the SSP and launched this vehicle as a vanity project. It supports Scottish nationalism and Trotskyism. By splitting the far-left vote, Solidarity assured that the SSP would lose all its MSPs. Solidarity is affiliated to TUSC.

Sparticist League – Like the Communist League, the Sparticists are controlled by their larger US-based sister party. SL espouses Trotskyism but with the added taboo that they support paedophile rights, arguing that age-of-consent laws somehow oppress paedophiles. They are avoided by the rest of the left.

Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) – Founded by Bob Crow of the RMT and the Socialist Party of England and Wales. It was founded by the RMT as a left-wing alternative to the Labour Party but has been used by SPEW as a means to recruit to its own party by using the RMT's money for electioneering and propaganda purposes. Other affiliates include Independent Socialist Network, Socialist Resistance and most recently the Socialist Workers Party. TUSC are rarely seen unless there is an election occurring in which case they can found in Tory-Labour maginals telling people to “not vote Labour” because “Labour and the Tories are all the same.” Due to being the beneficiaries from a recent will, TUSC was given £80,000 which they used to fund 100 deposits for Parliamentary seats and several hundred council seats in 2015.

Unite the Resistance – An SWP front organisation which was set up in opposition to the Coalition of Resistance. UtR's goal is to build an anti-austerity movement but through the leadership of the SWP and the exclusionary of those who do not accept the leadership of the SWP.

Workers Power – a small Trotskyist group which split from International Socialists in the 1970s over a theoretical position which is of no interest to someone who isn't a Trotskyist. They publish an eponymously named magazine and consider themselves to be part of the “Fifth International”.

Workers Revolutionary Party – WRP is a small remnant of the large Trotskyist party of the 1980s which was backed by Vanessa Redgrave. It has a tiny membership and has never recovered from being associated with sexual abuse allegations against its former leader.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Thanks for info!

BTW, there are candidates standing for the Socialist Party of Great Britain (under the full name) in both Oxford constituencies: Oxford East, and Oxford West and Abingdon. I've seen a couple of leaflets from them.

[FarPoint]

2. Thank you.

I bookmarked this.

[T_i_B]

3. Thanks.

The Communist Party Of Britain have some large billboards in Sheffield, which leads cynical types like me to conclude that their finances must be in better shape than most far left groups.

I didn't know about the Spartacists support of paedophile rights, but already heartily dislike them anyway.

You allude to the SWP rape scandal, and the TUSC candidate for Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough is Maxine Bowler, who was involved with the mishandling of that affair.

Also notable that in many places far left candidates are standing against each other. Inevitable given the state of the far left but not really very helpful.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

4. Priorities

The CPB are standing in 9 constituencies and have focused their resources in a more targeted away. This is the reverse to TUSC which has basically put up *anyone* from the RMT, SPEW or SWP who wants to be a candidate because they had the money for the 100 Parliament deposits and 100s of council seats, but little else. TUSC's approach was to put up as many candidates as possible without thinking of the campaigning involved. TUSC hoped to put up 900 council seat candidates but they have only achieved around half this amount as not enough people came forward to be candidates.

[bathbisf]

5. Unfair to the RCG

You are wrong about the RCG having a change of line around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In reality, the RCG became what it is now sometime in the late 1970s, certainly by the time it published the first issue of FRFI in 1979.

Saying it “hates” trade unions is simplistic to the point of misleading. For example it vigorously supported the NUM and miners’ strike in the 80s. Where it does differ from most of the rest of the left though is that it holds that trade unions now mainly organise a minority, upper layer of the working class – pointing out for example that more than half of trade unionists are now managers or “professionals” and more trade unionists earn more than £52k/year than earn less than £13k. It doesn’t seem such a heresy from a Marxist point of view, to believe that a (non-union) hospital cleaner on minimum wage has more of an objective interest in a Bolshevik-type revolution than a (union) middle manager earning 52k or more in the same workplace! The RCG holds that it is an "elementary duty" of communists to support trade union strikes, but that this isn't the be-all-an-end-all of the struggle at the moment when most workers and almost all low-paid workers are not to be found in the unions. Trying to "go to where the majority of the workers are" is an odd idea of ultra-left!

The RCG believe that imperialist exploitation of other countries (mere crumbs from the City of London's parasitism) enables this small layer of well-paid workers to exist in Britain, and that because they have a stake in the system they will try to preserve it. That this layer’s higher level of wealth, education, organisation etc enables it to influence the working class as a whole and stabilise capitalism. This is a position shared with many Maoists. Not that Maoism really exists as an organised force in Britain. This idea is very controversial on the left because many dislike the idea than any workers, even a minority in a minority of countries, could possibly benefit from capitalism.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. Trade unions are the mass democratic movement of the working class

there are more lower-strata workers in trade unions than for example in any other type of workers organisation. My personal experience of RCG comrades is that they seem well-meaning but they have no interest in building trade unions whatsoever, labelling them as "the racist trade unions", completely ignoring the efforts of BME comrades, brothers and sisters in the TUC and trade union movement. To my knowledge the RCG has played no part whatsoever in unionising vulnerable and low-paid groups, unlike many trade unions.

The most unionised workforces tend to be the most successful in fighting off attacks to their pain and conditions. Pointing to how well paid some trade unionists are, misses the point. Going to the non-union low paid workers is a great idea, but to do what? What have you got to offer them besides a bi-monthly 8-page edition of FRFI and telling them not to join racist unions? It would be better to unionise the workers and empower them to be part of the largest democratic organisation in civil society, the trade unions.

[Lookingintoart]

7. RCG support Trade Unions

Are in favour of people joining trade unions, they are members of trade union and the support unions struggle they just don't think it should be the focus of building a mass movement. Certainly is not correct to say they think they are 'evil'.

"communists today do not neglect the need to intervene in trade unions, or to support struggles when they take place" Robert Clough (FRFI 141).

Also they gave support to the actually existing socialism well before the 1989. I think one of the problems in you excellent summary of Left groups is that IS / SWP were never orthodox Troskyist organisations but you are right the RCG is one of the few to break away from the Trots to the Tankies rather than from the CP.

The CPGB-CC is not Trotskyist but it has moved from much closer to them (almost a mirror image to the RCG's journey).

[Denzil_DC]

8. I've only had time to skim this,

but it seems quite accurate about the Scottish groupings to my knowledge. The Tommy Sheridan stuff is a bloody shame - he and his smaller band of the time did an enormous amount of good in barring warrant sales in Glasgow when the Poll Tax was at its height. He's squandered much of that goodwill, but still has support from folks on the schemes with long memories.

There are some other Scottish organizations I could mention (RISE etc.), but it depends how you define "far left" - we have a slightly different Overtoun Window up here!

By some people's definition, I'd be classed as (non-doctrinaire) "far left", whereas in reality I'm just a cuddly redistributionist social moderate/progressive whatever with anarchist leanings. Depending on the time of day and week and how the wind blows, obviously.